1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a remotely-programmable personal device, in particular a programmable implantable medical device, such as a cardiac pacemaker, a defibrillator, a cardioverter, or the like. In addition, the invention relates to a configuration for the remote programming of such a personal medical device and a method for remotely programming a programmable personal device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In connection with cardiac pacemakers or defibrillators in combination with a service center, it is possible and also well-known to transmit medical, physiological, or operational data obtained on the part of a cardiac pacemaker or defibrillator to the central service center, and to analyze these data there and provide them to an attending physician via a corresponding user interface.
Some functions of such implants are controlled by software or firmware and are therefore programmable. For this purpose, such an implant has a programmable controller.
It frequently occurs that after initial programming shortly before, during, or after the implantation of the implant, further programming or reprogramming is desirable to be able to set the implant better to health states of a patient, which have possibly changed in the meantime, or to increase the performance capability of the implant in another way. Programming or reprogramming of this type frequently occurs in that a physician produces a short-range, wireless data connection to a particular implant with the aid of a programming device and programs the implant in consideration of the patient.
However, programming or reprogramming of the implant may fundamentally occur remotely, for example, via the central service center. For this purpose, a data link may be established between the service center and a patient device, which is typically located in proximity to a patient and may establish a bidirectional data link between the implant and the patient device. The link between the service center and the patient device may be implemented as wireless or wire-bound, for example, via the telephone network.
In the remote programming of a personal device of this type, like such an implant or also the patient device, the fundamental problem exists that the runtime of remotely-issued programming instructions (these are data packets which contain control parameters for the programmable controller of the personal device, for example) cannot be reliably estimated beforehand, so that programming instructions do not necessarily arrive at the personal device in the sequence in which they were output, for example. This may result in incorrect programming of the personal device, which may have fatal consequences in particular if the personal device is an implant such as a cardiac pacemaker, for example.